Improved tie strap



p 1 1940- I o. suM M|-: Rs

IMPROVED TIE STRAP Filgd Feb. 25, 1937 /7& men for 0mm SUMMER 25.

' Patented Sept. 10, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 1 Claim.

My present invention relates to the art of concrete form equipment and more particularly to an improved tie strap adapted especially for use with the spaced walls of the forms employed in fashioning concrete walls or building structures.

My invention is intended to supply the need for advanced equipment in the erection and positioning of concrete forms and to particularly facilitate their erection by unskilled labor.

The invention consists essentially in the provision of a tying strap and spacing gage which can be installed under any of the widely varying conditions of constructional work, and in the provision of means for the economical employment of my tie strap.

By the use of the adjustable tie-strap of my invention in connection with the concrete forms, the straight edges for the truing of the forms can be easily put in place and wherein the work of aligning the forms can be readily and positively effected even by unskilled labor.

Other and more specific objects will be apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, where- Figure 1 is a perspective View of my improved tie strap.

Figure 2 is a perspective view showing a portion of the walls of a concrete form with narrow uprights or studding, showing the tie strap shortened, and with the outer ends of the two sections or metal strips forming the strap bent around corners of the studding and nailed in place.

5 Figure 3 is a horizontal sectional view through a portion of the spaced walls of the form and studding, showing the tie strap contracted in length as in Fig. 2, but with the outer ends of the strap-sections or metal strips nailed flat against 40 comparatively wide studding or uprights.

Referring to the drawing, throughout which like reference characters indicate like parts, my present tie strap as a unit is an improvement on my tie strap shown in United States Patent Num- 45 her 1,920,607. The present strap differs essentially from the patented strap, however, in that my present device is formed of twosimilar halves or lapped sections which are joined together by a plurality of interlocking hooks in the nature of 50 bent lugs stamped from the metal strap sections.

As indicated in the drawing the tie strap consists essentially of two longitudinally adjustable, reversible, and complementary sections or metal strips I and 2 with their inner or adjoining ends 55 lapped. The lapped portion of each strap-section or metal strip is fashioned with a longitudinally extending central series of oppositely arranged and bent lugs 3 and 4 respectively, which lugs are preferably stamped from the sheet metal, and uniformly spaced, thereby forming a series of slots 5 or holes 5 in strip l and slots or holes 6 in strip '2. These two series of slots or holes register after the bent lugs or hooks 3 and 4 have been passed laterally through a complementary slot in the respective strips, and the resulting openings 10 formed by the slots of the two strips form spaces, one of which may be selected for a spreader or wedge l. The wedge is driven laterally through the lapped portion of the tie-strap, and as it engages a hook or bent lug 3 and a complemen- 15 tary hook or bent lug 4, these hooks are caused to engage adjoining slot-walls to lock the two strips together.

The flat outer end portions of the two metal strips l and 2 are fashioned with pairs of nail 20 holes 8-8, for use in anchoring or fastening the tie strap by means of nails 9, to the studs or uprigts Iii of the spaced form-walls II between which the concrete is poured. The form walls are slotted as at l2 to permit these flat outer ends 5 of the strips to be passed outwardly therethrough.

In making a narrow concrete wall, or where a narrow studding is used, the flat ends of the unitary strap may be bent around the studding and 0 nailed thereto as in Fig. 2, while in making a wider concrete wall or where a wider studding is employed as in Figure 3, the flat ends of the unitary strap are nailed to the plane faces of the spaced studs.

The overall length of the unitary strap as well as the central interlocked portion of the unitary strap may be extended or contracted, within limits, by the use of a varying number of hooked lugs in the two series of locking members. Thus in Figures 2 and 3 the interlocking parts of the two strips have been shortened by bending outwardly in opposite directions the interlocking ends or overlapping ends of the strips. To adapt the tie-strap to a wider space between the formwalls H, H, the two strips are relatively extended before they are interlocked.

Integral spacing or gage lugs 13 and M are also struck up or stamped from the sheet metal strips I and 2 of the tie-strap, and as indicated in Figure 3 they abut against the inner faces of the form-walls H, H, adjacent the slots [2, for properly locating the tie-strap in connection with the spreading action of the wedge I as the latter is 5 An adjustable tie strap consisting of lapped strips of sheet metal, the lapped portion of each strip having a central longitudinally extending series of books forming slots in each strip, the hooks of each strip being passed laterally through the slots of the other strip and thereby forming spaced openings in the lapped portion of the strap, and a spreader-Wedge secured in one of said openings, whereby the hooks of one strip are caused to engage over a slot-wall of another strip. 10

OMAR SUMMERS. 

